Nowadays, it is fairly common for people living in big cities to decide against staying at their mom and dad’s house or on their own. Instead, it’s becoming more and more common for people to live with people who are not blood relations. You know this, of course, being the up-to-date cosmopolitan that you are. But what you may not know is that there are multiple benefits offered to those who take this one step further by deciding to have total strangers as roommates. These benefits include:

1. You Learn to Communicate And Speak Your Mind in a Healthy Way.

If you are living with family, they have likely known you since birth. Therefore, in a lot of communication, you likely rely on your family understanding your body language and the things you don’t say. Even long-term friends who become roommates can understand you in a similarly intimate way. When you decide to have strangers as roommates, you have no such luxury. Every time something annoys you in the slightest, you have to say something, because there is no way these newly-made-intimate strangers are going to know your peccadilloes without having them spelled out.

2. You Expand Your Social Network.

If you decide to keep living in the same space and spending time doing the same things you’ll likely continue to see the same people. And, as Albert Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” In the same sense, if you desire to meet new people and be exposed to fresh ideas, there’s nothing that will get you integrated into a new group of people as quickly as having strangers as roommates. You open up a whole new network of potential friends, loves, and business contacts just by sharing a living space with people you didn’t previously know.

3. You Save Money and Live Somewhere You Otherwise Couldn’t Afford.

Millennials are often said to be overly concerned with money, having come of wage-earning age during the Global Financial Crisis, so if there’s one reason you should consider having strangers as roommates, it’s the extra cash you will have in your wallet at the end of each month. I, myself, am about to move in with a few strangers into a townhouse on the West Side of Chicago. I am going to have the top-floor bedroom of this four-storey all to myself, along with ample living space and multiple bathrooms. With the average price of a single bedroom apartment in Chicago approaching $1,600 a month, what I am getting for the price I am paying is a steal.

4. You Will Learn Which of Your Possessions You Truly Need to Survive.

In moving in with strangers, you will likely have to negotiate concerns over shared space and how much of your “stuff” you can actually haul into this new home. Accordingly, you will find out that your prized Wolfgang Puck Howitzer-Style Cappuccino Maker is not something that is essential to your survival, but, rather, is a fictional appliance I just made up on the spot. In fact, you’ll probably be surprised to learn that your new roommates Keurig machine works just fine in delivering caffeine directly to your blood stream.

5. You’ll Learn How to Be Friendly With People Without Necessarily Having to Be Friends With Them.

The skill of being cordial and friendly with people you don’t know (and may actually want to maintain a distance from) is something that is very valuable in work settings, especially in offices. You’ll have to learn how to have your new roommates like you, and feel warmly towards you, without having them know every detail of your life– or having to eat every meal with them. Trust me, this is a skill that is not easily obtained, but is one that is needed in many circumstances.